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June 11, 2012

From Product Innovation Charter to the Product Protocol

Given readers interest in a previous post on Product Innovation Charter (PIC), it 's useful to look at the Product Protocol. The Product Protocol is a team governance document that helps the internal co-ordination and clarifies expectations between team members. Here are some key points about the Product Protocol:

What is the Product Protocol ? The Product Protocol is a written document that the multi-disciplinary new product development team puts together to help team members from functions like R&D,Design,Marketing,Procurement, Production co-ordinate.

When is the Product Protocol developed? Product Protocols become necessary at the development stage when the idea has been narrowed down, a concept has been developed and a concept test has been carried out with prospective customers to prioritize the attributes,functions and benefits that customers consider most important

Attibutes,functions or benefits? Focussing on developing the product or service around benefits is most desirable. A bit like staying focussed on value as perceived by the customer. Also if the benefits to customer are put on center stage team members from Design,R&D and Production can really think freely about how to deliver that benefit within their own areas.

How Product Protocols help: Just as the PIC creates an overarching New Product Mission statement and guides the process throughout, the Product Protocol encourages the Development team to reach out to potential customers just as they are designing/developing the product. By doing so the NPD process gets an opportunity to be validated at this technical stage, saving a lot of potential re-work.

So even if you have a great development team and a great concept that has come through well in concept testing, consider developing a Product Protocol. Doing so will clarify goals to your development team and help them contribute better to the development process. In fact, the clarity will empower your development team to better execution.Contact StratoServe.